January 13, 2011

ULM biology alum to serve on international scholarly committee

University of Louisiana at Monroe biology alum Dr. Ragupathy Kannan will serve on the 2010-11 Environmental Science Peer Review Committee for the Fulbright Specialist Program. He received a master's in biology from the University of Louisiana at Monroe and a doctorate in biology from the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville. He also holds bachelor's and master's degrees in zoology from Loyola College, Chennai, India.

The Fulbright Specialist Program, conducted by the Council for International Exchange of Scholars, promotes links between U.S. academics and professionals and their counterparts at overseas universities or institutions with education-focused programming. The program is designed to award grants to qualified U.S. faculty and professionals, allowing the educators to pursue short-term collaborative projects at higher educational institutions in more than 100 countries worldwide.

Kannan, currently a biology professor at the University of Arkansas - Fort Smith, is one of several experts approved to serve on the Committee, all who come from a range of specializations and institutions.

As a peer reviewers, he and others will review applications for the specialist program, assessing the appropriateness of the applicant's background, experience and achievements. Reviewers also consider the applicant's ability to promote mutual understanding and the applicant's ability to benefit the host country while there and the home institution after returning to the United States.

Kannan has won numerous awards and recognitions, including a six-month stint as a Fulbright Scholar in India in 2007. He has also served as a reader for the College Board's AP Examinations in AP biology and has been involved in several grants which funded student research projects at UA Fort Smith. He joined the UA-Fort Smith faculty in 1994.

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